Guard-rail



R. B. POOLE. GUARD RAIL.

(N0 Mod'l.)

No. 538,280. Patented Apr. 30, 1895.

JNVENTOR oBE'JT 5. POOLE. @www w UNITED STATES' APATENT @EFiCE.

ROBERT B. POOLE, OE UTIOA, NEW YORK.

GUARD-RAIL.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 538,280, dated April 30,1895.

Application filed November 15,1894. Serial No. 528,884. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, ROBERT B. POOLE, of Utica, in the county of Oneidaand State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Guard-Rails; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters andnumerals of reference marked thereon, which form part f of thisspecification.

' bodying one feature of my invention.

My invention relates to improvements in car wheels and tracks In thedrawings which accompany and form part of this specification, and inwhich the same letters and numerals of reference refer to correspondingparts in the several gures,

Figure 1 shows a plan view of a railroad trackat a curve, including theguard rail and em- Fig. 2 shows a cross section of the track and guardrail in connection with a portion'of a doublefaced wheel adapted to runthereon. Fig. 3 shows an inner face view of a section of the guard rail.Fig. 4 shows a side elevation of a section of the rail and guard railslightly exaggerated as to differences in height of rails.

The track as shown consists of two rails 'A and B; the rail A becomingthe inner, and the railB the outer in the curve shown. Adjacent to therail A at acurve is located the guard rail C on the inner side thereof.The guard rail is provided with bracket-like supportsD located atintervals thereon, adapted to engage withv the track rail, and the guardrail is secured to the track rail by bolts 2 passing through sleeve-likeportions d of the brackets D and the web of the track rail. In the innerface of the guard rail Cis provided a groove 3 adapted to receive andretain a row or series of balls 4. The faces of these balls projectsomewhat from the face of the rail and are adapted to be engaged by theliange of a wheel running on the track. The row or seri'es of balls areretained in the groove by plates 5 secured upon each end of the guardrail by bolts h, b. There is some eX- tra space provided in the grooveso that the row of balls may have an endwise movement of, say, two orthree inches. At intervals in the guard rail are provided drip or escapeopenings 7. The head c of the guard rail projects above the plane of thetrack rail and may be inclined upward, as indicated at C, while the headof the track rail may be cut away on an incline, as indicated at A toproduce this difference in elevation. The wheel E is -provided with anouter bearing face e and an inner face e of a smaller diameter, with anintermediate flange The face e' is adapted to run on the head of theguard rail while the face e is temporarily out of operation. It will beunderstood that two wheels 'E are secured on the vsame axle and areadapted to run on the track rails A and B respectively.

As a car provided with wheels, as herein shown, reaches a curve in thetrack provided with guard rails, as herein shown, the weight or tread ofthe wheels is transferred from the track rail to the guard rail on theinner side of the curve, and the face of the wheel running on the guardrail being of smaller diameter than that of the outer face of the wheelrunning on the4 outer rail, the curve maybe rounded without slipping ofwheels on the track, thereby reducing the friction and amount of powerrequired. The difference in size of the operating faces of the wheelswhen the vcar is Ona curve, also tends to turn the car in making thecurve.

The car is positivelydirected or turned around the curve by the flangeof the wheel running against the row of balls 4 in the groove of theguard rail. The balls prevent friction and prevent the flange of thewheel from chewing or grindingA the guard rail, as well as Wearingitself out in that useless manner. When the 'flange of the Wheel strikesthe row of balls from either end, the roW is moved endwise two or threeinches, depending on the amount of freedom which is given them, andthereby free themselves as well as assisting in working any foreignmatter out of the openings 7.

It is evident that the guard rail and balls may be used with theordinary form of car Wheel, or that the particular form of car wheel maybe used with other forms of guard or supplemental Vpiece of track, asoccasion or circumstances might require.

No stress is laid on the particular form or IOO construction of guard orsupplemental rail I balls projecting from its side face, substanshown,or form of Wheel shown; the object tially as set forth. 15 being toillustrate the principles and mode of 3. Aguard rail havinga'slottedopening in operation of the invention, and many forms its side facecontaininga row of balls project- 5 of construction may be adoptedwithout deing beyond the side face, substantially as set parting fromthe equivalents of my invention. forth.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure In witness whereof I have axedmy signa zo by Letters Patent, is ture in presence of two witnesses.

1. The combination of a flanged Wheel and a 1 :o guard rail having ballsprojeocting from its ROBER'l B' POOLE' side face, substantially as setforth. Witnesses:

2. The combination of a flanged wheel, a M. A. KELLER, tread rail, and aguard rail havinga series of DWIGHT I-I. COLEGROVE.

